Sorry for the lack of posts the past week, it’s been busy. There has been a Ronaldinho sighting the past few weeks, and with it a resurgent AC Milan. Before we start calling for his return to the national team let’s see this form last awhile longer.

The U-17 team had a terrible performance at the World Cup. They have been complaining about the amount of yellow cards they received as the reason for their group stage exit, which is a sorry excuse. Bruno has an excellent piece on what happened that I highly recommend.

Doni (Roma)

Maicon (Internazionale)

Daniel Alves (Barcelona)

Luisão (Benfica)

Lúcio (Internazionale)

Juan (Roma)

Naldo (Werder Bremen)

Fábio Aurélio (Liverpool)

Michel Bastos (Lyon)

Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos)

Josué (Wolfsburg)

Lucas (Liverpool)

Felipe Melo (Juventus)

Alex (Spartak Moscou)

Julio Baptista (Roma)

Ramires (Benfica)

Elano (Galatasaray)

Kaká (Real Madrid)

Carlos Eduardo (Hoffenheim)

Robinho (Manchester City)

Luís Fabiano (Sevilla)

Nilmar (Villareal)

Hulk (Porto)

Dani Alves is set to be sidelined for around three weeks due to a thigh injury picked up yesterday, Barcelona have announced.

Felipe Melo was forced to leave the pitch having sustained an ankle injury, and will be evaluated on Friday. It doesn’t appear at that this injury will force him to miss an extended amount of time.

Robinho is going to be out of another two weeks after he suffered a setback in his return from a stress fracture.

Hulk and Pato enjoyed big days in their respective Champions League draws yesterday. Pato hurt Marcelo’s case to rejoin the national team, catching him completely asleep on two occasions. Here’s to hoping Pato takes Robinho’s place for the England friendly. What a sensational game he had yesterday!

The Under 17 World Cup for Brazil starts on Saturday. They open up against Japan. All the matches can be watched on ESPN360.com. This team is loaded, more than the U20 side for sure, so be sure to watch them.

Well that’s it for qualification. It was not an emphatic end to the campaign, but not a bad one either. These last two matches saw many non-regulars get a look. I think sometimes we forgot what a grueling endurance test South American qualification really can be. To finish first in the standing after this marathon is an accomplishment for any nation.

What did we learn last night and basically the last two years? As jzlim pointed out, Kaka and Luis Fabiano are what make this team click. The World Cup goes through them next summer. The attack is dramatically more fluid and organized with these two in the lineup. Both men were inches and seconds away from scoring on multiple occasions on Wednesday.

So who are the logical replacements for the two if something were to happen? The last two matches taught us that Diego Souza and Adriano are certainly not. The obvious answer in the case of Kaka would be Diego. The time undoubtedly has come for his return to the national team. He struggled playing out of position in his last go around with the team. However, put him in Kaka’s spot and I think we have a capable replacement.

At forward it’s a bit of a different story. Pato has struggled this season, playing at a club with a poor midfield. Regardless, he is too small to replace Luis Fabiano. He is better suited for playing Robinho’s spot. We have eight months to find another another physical forward who can bring down and hold the ball. Adriano’s laziness returned this week, and I remain highly skeptical he is adequate on the bench.

The new faces in the lineup on Wednesday were strong. Filipe was much more assertive than Andre Santos. I thought he added a dimension to the offense that is lacking otherwise from the left back spot. Lucas was playing a solid match, until Miranda (who again has no business on the team) received a straight red card when he inadvertently punched a Venezuelan forward. When Brazil went to ten men Lucas kind of disappeared. Before this incident, his defense capabilities in the midfield allowed Gilberto Silva to be a little more assertive on both ends of the pitch. I thought Gilberto Silva had a very fine match, one of his better performances recently.

What’s clear after the past two years of qualifying is that Brazil is very capable of winning the sixth. However, this is still a work in progress. I think the team can only get better when you consider who else can be called up. Guys like Alex (Chelsea), Naldo, Denilson, Hulk, etc. are all waiting in the wings.

Remember the U20 team plays in the World Cup final tomorrow. It can be watched on ESPN360.com. I will be in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend so if someone could post the You Tube highlights from the final on the comment board it would be appreciated. I will have a recap of that tournament after the weekend.

Player Ratings

Julio Cesar, 7, Rebounded from his poor showing in La Paz with a couple of key saves.

Filipe, 7, Better than Andre Santos and deserves a continued look.

Miranda, 4, Stupid red card, he would miss the first World Cup match as a result, hopefully he will not have to serve that suspension because he won’t be on the roster.

Luisao, 7, He was stronger in this match, and more adventuresome in the attack.

Maicon, 7, Same as Luisao, better overall.

Lucas, 6.5, His rating takes a hit for his dip in form after the Miranda red card.

Gilberto Silva, 7.5, Solid on both ends, inches away from scoring on a header.

Ramires, 6.5, He did a ton of running, very active, but still missing that touch.

Kaka, 7, He was subpar by Kaka standards, but still makes a world of difference when on the pitch.

Luis Fabiano, 7.5, A threat literally every time he touched the ball. You just know he is going to have a massive World Cup.

BRASIL 0 X 0 VENEZUELA

Julio César, Maicon, Luisão, Miranda e Filipe Luís (Alex); Gilberto Silva, Lucas, Ramires (Elano) e Kaká; Nilmar e Luis Fabiano (Diego Tardelli).

Técnico: Dunga.

Vega, Chacon, Vizcarrondo, Rey e Granados; Di Giorgi, Rincón (Seijas), Lucena e Arango (Fedor); Moreno (Rondon) e Maldonado.

Técnico: César Farias.

Cartões amarelos: Luis Fabiano, Luisão (Brasil); Chacon, Vizcarrondo, Di Giorgi, Granados (Venezuela).

Cartão vermelho: Miranda (Brasil).

Estádio: Morenão.

Data: 14/10/2009.

Árbitro: Victor Carrillo (PER).

Auxiliares: César Escano (PER) e Luis Abaddie (PER).

Renda: 2.562.925,00.

Público: 23.746 pagantes.

Brazil really deserved three points from this match but it wasn’t in the cards. We got a good look at Lucas and Filipe tonight. I thought both were solid. However, Kaka had a sub par match. Regardless, I don’t mind this result. The team played well in a match that did not matter much. I’ll have the full recap tomorrow.

They’ll play a solid Ghana team in the World Cup final on Friday. This was a well deserved win for the U20 team, although Costa Rica looked like a very legit side. Alan Kardec scored the game winner, and could have had more on more than a few occasions in this match. Rogério Lourenço has really done a masterful job with this team. They’ll be the clear favorites for the final.

BRASIL 1 x 0 COSTA RICA

Rafael, Wellington Júnior, Dalton, Rafael Tolói, Diogo (Bruno Bertucci), Maylson (Renan), Souza, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Giuliano, Alex Teixeira (Boquita) e Alan Kardec.

Técnico: Rogério Lourenço.

Esteban Alvarado, José Mena, Roy Smith, Pedro Leal, Ricardo Blanco, Diego Madrigal, David Guzman, Daniel Varela, Diego Estrada (Allen Guevara), Josué Martinez e Marcos Urena.

Técnico: Ronald Gonzalez.

Gol: Alan Kardec, aos 21 do segundo tempo.

Cartões amarelos: Diogo, Maylson, Bruno Bertucci, Souza, Giuliano (BRA); José Mena, Pedro Leal, David Guzman, Daniel Varela, Roy Smith (COS).

Estádio: Cairo International Stadium, no Cairo (EGI).

Data: 13/10/2009.

Árbitro: Alberto Undiano (ESP).

Wednesday, October 14, 17:00 ET Morenão, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul
TV Link

It’s back to a normal, non-mile high city for the last World Cup qualifier in Campo Grande tomorrow. This is the end of a long, difficult grind the past two years, but one that was ultimately successful.

The last time these two nations played in October of ’08 Brazil easily disposed of the Venezuelans 4-0.
Before their 2-1 loss at Saturday, the Venezuelans had improved their form substantially from last October, playing themselves within striking distance of the World Cup playoff spot. This side had taken points in five straight matches before their trip to Asuncion.

They would need to beat Brazil by a substantial margin, plus have help from Chile in order to still attain fifth place. If they do accomplish this you will know the fix was on in this match to say the least. More realistically, the Venezuelans don’t really believe they have a chance to make up this goal differential, with their manager already talking about preparing for the next Copa America.

Giancarlos Maldonado of Mexican club Atlante is the leading scorer for the Venezuelans during their qualifying campaign. Brazil will need to focus on him to prevent his side from causing too much of a threat.

Although after the Bolivia match I was hoping to see a lot of new faces, Dunga has been indicating that Kaka, Luis Fabiano, and Gilberto Silva will all play tomorrow. I would love to see Sandro, Naldo, and Filipe get a look at some point during this match. All in all, this should be a much more entertaining match than the one we saw over the weekend.

Possible Starting XI: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Luisao, Naldo, Andre Santos, Josue, Gilberto Silva, Dani Alves, Kaka, Nilmar, Luis Fabiano

Prediction: 3 – 1 Brazil

Diego Souza must already know he doesn’t have much of a chance at South Africa, and played like it. He was completely invisible in the first half, other than one atrocious attempt at a shot. He was justifiably subbed for at half, with Alex coming on in his place.

Josue….what else can I say about him that already hasn’t been said. He is a nice player for his club team, but is awful for the national team. He gave up fouls in bad spots, and poorly distributed the ball in my opinion. His marking was crap on the first Bolivian goal.

Ramires has continued his steep decline in play since bursting onto the scene in the summer. I feel like he has gotten progressively worse in every single appearance with the team. He had a great run into the box at one point in the match that he followed up with a terrible touch on the ball, too far forward and right into the hands of the keeper.

Adriano reverted to his 2008 form before sustaining an injury that required substitution. Not many strikers would have completely botched a rebound like the one he saw in the first half. He was walking around the pitch in the first half like he had been out there for 120 minutes.

The only person who played well in this match was Nilmar. He was a threat when he received any service from the midfield and scored Brazil’s only goal of the match.

Although this was a disappointing match there are some positives that Dunga can take from this. This was an opportunity to see many players who do not get a regular look. A manager like Dunga should be able to see that guys like Diego Souza, Josue, and Miranda are just not cut out for this. I suspect there will be further changes for Wednesday qualifier against Venezuela. I think we’ll see a more unfamiliar and enthusiastic lineup later this week.

Player Ratings

Julio Cesar, 6, He couldn’t do anything about the first goal, but should have done better on the second. Should that have been saved? Probably not, but he didn’t even see the ball.

Maicon, 6.5, Didn’t make as many runs as he wanted because of the Bolivian attack. Assistant on the Nilmar goal.

Luisao, 6, I thought he was a bit shaky at times, but was not at fault for either goal.

Miranda, 5, Was careless at times and did a poor job marking. Him and Josue’s marking on the first goal off a corner kick was not good.

Andre Santos, 5.5, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of his performance. He did play with a decent amount of energy, I didn’t think he did anything beyond average though. Was replaced by Elano in the second half.

Ramires, 5.5, He is quickly playing himself off the team.

Josue, 5, Please Dunga no more, please.

Dani Alves, 6, Got off to a slow start, but did much better in the second half. Nearly scored on two occasions.

Diego Souza, 4.5, You barely heard his name while he was on, and when you did it wasn’t for good reasons.

Nilmar, 7, Was very active and energetic, left it all out on the pitch.

Adriano, 5, Poor performance. I know he did not receive a great deal of service, but that botched rebound gets him this rating.

Subs

Diego Tardelli, 6, Was an improvement on Adriano, did not have the greatest touch yesterday though.

Alex, 6, Things started to improve and open up when he came on and settled into the matchf.

Elano, n/a

Remember the U20 team is in the World Cup semis tomorrow at 2:00 ET against Costa Rica. I’ll have the preview of the Venezuela match up tomorrow night.

That sucked. The team was very uninspired this afternoon. Josue and Miranda have no business being on the national team…none. Bolivia definitely deserved the points. I’ll have the full recap either tonight or tomorrow afternoon, no one is getting more than a 6.5 rating.

Barely…Maicon scored twice in the last few minutes of the match. I didn’t get to watch this one so let me know exactly what happened. They play again on Tuesday against a very beatable Costa Rica side.